Do I Need to Insure My Boat Off-Season?

The arrival of the fall months mark the close of the boating season, and you’ve taken your boat out of the water until next summer. Thinking that boat insurance is unnecessary during the off season, you cancel your policy, hoping to save some money during the winter months. The notion that boat insurance is only necessary during the peak season is a commonly held one, but it is actually false. Failing to insure your boat during the off season is not only risky, but also potentially costly. We’ll explain why it’s important to keep your boat adequately insured year-round in what follows.

The Facts

Boat owners usually lull themselves into complacency by believing that nothing could possibly happen to their boats once they are out of the water. With this mentality, it seems only logical to cancel your boat insurance policy during this time. In reality, though, there is no shortage of claims during the winter months. In fact, 20% of all boat claims filed in northern states occur between Labor Day and Memorial Day, the period usually considered the boating off season. Boat owners forget about the risks that remain in the winter months, such as fire, vandalism, theft, and flooding, that could result in massive financial losses without adequate insurance protection.

Liability Never Sleeps

Your boat may be hibernating for the winter, but liability never sleeps. If any injuries occur on or around your out-of-commission boat, you will likely still be liable, even if the injured party was there illegally. If you cancel your boat insurance policy, you would not have the liability coverage to pay for the damages or the injured party’s medical bills. The ubiquitous threat of lawsuits even during the off season is yet another reason to keep your coverage active year round.

Relying on Home Insurance

Perhaps you don’t want to forgo coverage entirely during the winter months, so you opt to add a boat endorsement to your home insurance policy. Though this is possible, a stand-alone boat insurance policy covers much more than a boat endorsement on a generic homeowners policy. The endorsement could leave many mishaps and certain liability claims uncovered, so you would basically just be throwing your money away.

Saving Money

For most boat owners, the biggest incentive for winter-month coverage cancellation is the prospect of savings. Realistically, though, canceling might actually end up costing you more money. For instance, many insurers offer some type of disappearing deductibles program, whereby your deductibles are reduced by a certain percentage for every policy period you go without filing a claim. With enough consecutive claim-free periods, you could easily get your deductibles down to nothing in some cases. But, if you cancel your policy, you would have to pay the entire deductible or more, which is usually $500-$1,000.